Shower cap



Feb. 6, 1962 s. POLLACK ET AL SHOWER CAP Filed Feb. 12, 1960 NV EN TORSMm$ Yfii? 61% 4.

ilnited States Patent 3,019,444 SHOWER CAP Shirley Pollack, 17114Fairiield, and Devora Finsilver, 20435 Picadilly, both of Detroit, Mich.Filed Feb. 12, 196i), Ser. No. 8,410 2 Claims. (Cl. 268) This inventionrelates to headgear which may be worn while bathing or showering toprotect the hair of the wearer from water.

The elaborate coiffures worn by many women are easily spoiled whencontacted by water. Therefore it has long been the practice for women toprotect their hairdos from contact with water while showering or bathingby wearing caps formed of a flexible waterproof film material having anelastic band or other means for closely engaging the head of the wearer.These caps are normally shapeless and when worn conform to the hairshape of the wearer.

At various times, including the present, large elaborate hairdos havebeen fashionable which are unable to withstand even slight pressures.When shower caps of the aforedescribed type are worn with these hairdosthe forces exerted against the hair by the tensions in the material andthe water pressure exerted against the material often cause the hairdoto collapse.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a showercap formed of a film material and having means for retaining its edgesclosely against the head of the wearer which is self supporting so as toavoid pressured contact which might be damaging to the hairdo.

In addition to being self-supporting it is necessary that such showercap be conformable to a wide variety of hairdos effected by women.Therefore a further object of the present invention is to provide such acap which may be simply and quickly adjusted for use with any shape orform of hairdo.

These objects are achieved in a preferred embodiment of the inventionwhich comprises a cap formed of a large circle of waterproof plasticfilm which is drawn together at its free edge by an elastic memberattached thereto so as to assume a cap shape. A plurality of elongatedstiffening ribs are attached to the cap surface in a pattern whichradiates from the center towards the edges. These ribs are non-resilientand may be deformed at any point along their length to give shape to thecap. The cap is adjusted so as to accommodate a particular coitfure bybending each of the stiffening ribs into a pattern which will cause itto be self-supporting over a volume which can contain the hairdo withoutexerting pressure upon it.

Other objects, advantages and applications of the present invention willbe made apparent by the following detailed description of twoembodiments of the invention. The description makes reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top view of a first embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom view of that embodiment of the invention;

FIGURES 3 and 4 are perspective views of the cap of FIGURES 1 and 2 asit may be shaped to accommodate coiffures of various design; and

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention.

As illustrated in FIGURES l, 2, 3, and 4, a preferred embodiment to theinvention generally indicated at 10, comprises a circle of waterproofplastic film material such as polyethylene 12 which is gathered at itsfree end by a continuous elastic member 20 so as to form a semienclosedshape. The excess material at the edges maniice fests itself in aplurality of wrinkles 15 which occur in the material. A plurality ofstiffening ribs 14 are sewn to the outer surface of the film 12 in apattern that radiates from a common center 16 and extends to just shortof the elastic member which forms the edge. While these strips areillustrated as being sewn to the outer side of the cap they may also besewn to the inner surface which has the advantage of obviating thenecessity that they be waterproof.

The strips 14 are formed of material such as a plastic or a heavilystiffened fabric or a metal which may be easily bent to assume a curveand which is non-resilient so that it will retain the shape that it isgiven.

FIGURES 3 and 4 illustrate how the ribs 14 may be deformed so as toaccommodate various shapes of the coiffures. In FIGURE 3 the ribs havebeen deformed so as to give the cap a high peaked shape while in FIG-URE 4 the ribs have all been bent at points 18 to accommodate a flatflaring style of hairdo. In both cases the shape assumed by the cap issuch as to avoid any pressured contact with the hair.

FIGURE 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of our invention whereinthe cap generally illustrated at 27.. again comprises a film sheet 24gathered up by an elastic member 28. It differs from the previousembodiment in that the plurality of ribs 26, which are formed of thesame material as those in the previous embodiment, do not radiate from acommon center but rather are disposed parallel to one another entirelyacross the hat from one edge ot the other. This configuration providesgreater strength in the direction of the ribs but less strength in thedirection transverse to them and therefore has particular use with formsof hairdo where it is particularly desirable to avoid a stress in onedirection.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A shower cap formed of a waterproof material adapted to conform to agenerally spherical shape, having means for retaining its free edge inpressured contact with the head of the wearer and having a plurality ofelongated, non-resilient, rigid, hand-deformable stiffening membersattached to the surface of the material so as to extend in a generaldirection from the central portion of the cap toward the edge thereof,whereby said stiffening members may be deformed so as to vary the freeshape assumed by the cap to conform to the hairdo of the wearer, saidcap having a larger volume than the head and hairdo it is adapted toembrace so as to enable it to fit the head without crushing the hairdoof the wearer.

2. A shower cap formed of a waterproof material adapted to conform to agenerally spherical shape, having means for retaining its free edge inpressured contact with the head of the wearer and having a plurality ofelongated, non-resilient, rigid, hand-deformable stiffening membersattached to the surface of the material in a pattern extending radiallyfrom the center toward the edge, whereby said stiffening members may bedeformed so as to vary the free shape assumed by the cap to conform tothe hairdo of the wearer, said cap having a larger volume than the headand hairdo it is adapted to embrace so as to enable it to fit the headwithout crushing the hairdo of the wearer.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS734,578 Lemmerman July 28, 1903 1,904,108 Walsh Apr. 18, 1933 1,984,521Deegan Dec. 18, 1934 2,677,827 Lockhart May 11, 1954

